New Campaign Challenges Major League Baseball to Stop Giving Glenn Beck a Platform to Spew Hate

October 13th, 2011

Say It Ain’t So, MLB: New Campaign Challenges Major League Baseball to Stop Giving Shock Jock Glenn Beck a Platform to Spew Hate

New York Times: “Beck is charg[ing] his fans a monthly subscription for his daily talk show online…To power GBTV, Mr. Beck’s company has teamed with MLB Advanced Media, the interactive arm of Major League Baseball, which streams hundreds of games to online users each year.”

Washington DC – With America’s game down to the final exciting innings of post-season, a new campaign from Americans United for Change is pressuring Major League Baseball to immediately end its unseemly relationship with hate-mongering media personality Glenn Beck. AUFC has launched a new website www.StrikeOutBeck.com in response to recentreports that MLB Advanced Media, the interactive arm of Major League Baseball, is providing Beck with their coveted streaming video platform to stream his daily “GBTV” show online. Click Here for more information.

As part of the campaign, Facebook ads will be seen this week in St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore and Milwaukee (hometown of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig) that encourages baseball fans and progressives to watch this video featuring just some of Beck’s most disgusting and offensive broadcast moments and to sign a petition calling on MLB owners to drop Beck from their lineup today.

Tom McMahon, Executive Director, Americans United for Change: “When it comes to unhinged anti-government conspiracies, fear mongering for personal gain, sexist remarks, and race baiting, Glenn Beck is in the Major Leagues -- and certainly in a league of his own when it comes to disrespect for families of 9-11 victims. That’s why it’s so troubling and disheartening that the good folks behind Major League Baseball would agree to what even FOX News couldn’t stomach to do any longer: providing Beck with a platform to peddle more fear and spew more hate.”

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BACKGROUND: MLB IS NO HOME FOR GLENN BECK’S HATE

New York Times: To power GBTV, Mr. Beck’s company has teamed with…the interactive arm of Major League Baseball.” Glenn Beck is planning to charge his fans a monthly subscription for his daily talk show online starting this summer, as he makes the move from being a Fox News host to the owner of his own Internet network…To power GBTV, Mr. Beck’s company has teamed with MLB Advanced Media, the interactive arm of Major League Baseball, which streams hundreds of games to online users each year. It also has a deal with Clear Channel, its radio partner, to promote the online network. [New York Times, June 6, 2011]

NESN: MLB Advanced Media Teaming With Conservative Commentator Glenn Beck to Stream Shows Online. MLB Advanced Media, the digital rights company that handles online services for Major League Baseball and its 30 teams, is adding a right-wing presence to its portfolio. Political commentator Glenn Beck, who is leaving his position at Fox News Channel to launch his online network, GBTV, has reached an agreement with MLB Advanced Media to stream his shows online. [New England Sports Network, July 7, 2011]

Nearly 400 sponsors had boycotted Beck’s defunct FOX program. “And Beck and his fiery rhetoric have created a rocky relationship with Fox advertisers. A source told the Daily News that the number of advertisers currently boycotting Beck’s program is now closing in at 400.” [New York Daily News, March 23, 2011]

Salon.com: “[In] one of the cruelest bits in the history of morning radio, [a] couple days after Kelly’s wife, Terry, had a miscarriage, Beck called her live on the air and says, ‘We hear you had a miscarriage,’” remembers Brad Miller, a former Y95 DJ and Clear Channel programmer. “When Terry said, ‘Yes,’ Beck proceeded to joke about how Bruce [Kelly] apparently can’t do anything right — about he can’t even have a baby.”